I'm tired of being gouged by local business!

[Old Syko]

I needed replacement bearings for a lawn mower deck.  The local dealer who sold the mower wanted $42 each.  I needed 6 of them.  Since this is a common bearing I went to 3 auto parts houses and 2 other implement dealers.  All wanted from $36 to $43 for the same part.  Went online and bought from an implement dealer in Texas for $6.95 each.  Now I don't mind paying a bit more to support local business but a 600% mark up ain't going to happen.  Other parts I needed which are proprietary to the brand and only available through approved dealers were $31 each here and through the guy in Texas are $10.95.  These parts come from the same manufacturer no matter who I buy them from as they're only 2 plants in the country who make them. 


There are very few business men left with any ethics anymore.  Had a gun dealer stop by to see me a few days ago.  Said he thought I had died because I hadn't been in for a long time.  I explained to him I was very much alive and hadn't graced his threshold since I saw him selling ammo at 1000% profit and I never would again because of it.  I heard this morning the bank has forclosed on everything he thought he owned.  I don't feel sorry for him in the least.


At the rate we are going there won't be a business of any kind around here unless some of these greedy idiots wake up.  Been thinking it might be a good time to start a reputable business or 2 in the area.  I think folks would find it a refreshing change and support an ethically operated establishment.   

[Conan The Librarian]

My tale of woe with parts like that is that my local dealers couldn't get the parts I needed. I'd order them in the fall and they wouldn't have them by spring when I needed them. Solution: Jack's small engines. They've got a web site. No reason to go anywhere else.
 
I respect a good parts man because he can help me find solutions to my problem, but most places don't have good parts men. They just look things up and if they can't find an exact match, I'm out of luck. Heck, I can do that myself looking on a web page.

[gypsyman]

It's kinda surprising with the internet nowdays, that some of these guys havn't caught on. I can truely understand, how some small business's can't compete against big guys like Walmart. But, when you get into the specialty stuff, like parts, you would think that the little guy would check out the compitition-(internet) and try and at least come close on price.
You never know though, that local parts guy might very well buy from the dealer in Texas, and pay the same price as you did. Even at that though, he could have ordered them, added $5 over price plus shipping, added sales tax, and might have made the sale. As is, he lost out. gypsyman

[briarpatch]

Business under the crime bosses of today (government) can be very complex. Some times we dont see the overhead involved to keep one open. It is getting worse everyday.
Cant say that is the problem here but could be part of the reason.

[tunnug]

Reminds me of when I went looking for stock replacement lug-nuts for my wife's CRV, the dealer wanted $8 ea., I needed 20, the local auto parts and hardware stores were around $5ea., I went online and found a set of 20 for $25 + shipping, paying under $30 sure beat $100-$160 for the same thing.

[hunt-m-up]

I don't mind paying for the convenience of being able to walk in and pick something up the day I need it, but when they're at 2-3X's what any other place is charging and they act like I owe them the business, I can wait for it.

[magooch]

Reminds me of when I went looking for stock replacement lug-nuts for my wife's CRV, the dealer wanted $8 ea., I needed 20, the local auto parts and hardware stores were around $5ea., I went online and found a set of 20 for $25 + shipping, paying under $30 sure beat $100-$160 for the same thing.

My brother-in-law had a similar situation; he went to a high volume tire store.  They had buckets of lug nuts and they let him pick through and find what he needed.  Free.

[Conan The Librarian]

I like my local businesses and use them whenever it's practical to do so. These are my neighbors and they are generally good people. When it's not practical, I use mail order. I think a lot of our discontent with brick and mortar businesses is that we now have this very powerful tool of the internet to make specialty items available from good sources.
 
Getting away from the mundane world of lug nuts an on to something a bit more exciting, we have some big box outdoor stores like Gander close by, and a Cabelas about an hour away. I almost never shop at them because they don't seem to understand the needs of the Minnesota fisherman the way local places like Capras, Vados and Fleet Farm does. I shop the local places almost exclusively and their prices are competitive. Sometimes I go to Cabelas during the winter just to have an outing, and I even bought a rod and reel there within the past couple of years.
 
By the way, is there a new name to replace the term "mail order"? It really should be something that doesn't refer to the post office because almost all of my important stuff arrives either electronically or via FedEx/UPS.

[Dixiejack]

My local small engine/lawn mower/chainsaw repair shop just closed his doors for good.  When I needed my riding mower serviced, he came out after work and would pick it up.  About a 6 mile round trip.  Never charge me for that service.  When I went in to buy a replacement belt that broke, he was out of stock and went across the street to the NAPA store with my broke belt and found one that would fit.  He charged me what it cost him, I paid him and went home and put it on.  He could have just as easily told me to do the same thing. He did that for all his customers, after all this is a small town of 1,000 home folks.


Just about a week before he closed he put an announcement in the local fish wrapper that he was going out of business, thanking his loyal customers.  He also said in the ad that customers needed to come pick up their mowers, etc.  At the bottom of the ad in small letters he asked that people who stilled owed him for work need to settle their accounts before he closed, because after he closed he was turning all past due accounts over to a collection agency.  I saw him a couple of weeks later in the post office and during our conversation, I mentioned the collection agency and if the deadbeats paid him.  He said a few had, but he still had about ten grand on the books. 



I guess he had a lot of customers who bitched about his prices being higher while he put their purchases on the books.  Now they can go online, type in their CC number and wait a week or two for the part to show up so they can replace it themselves.

[Conan The Librarian]

I wish we had more guys like that around. Sounds like a good man. Our mechanic is like that. Utterly trustworthy. We've been with him for many years. A real treasure.
 
But we're lucky. Our local lawn-mower repair/hardware store went out of business a few years ago, but I think it's because they were no good. I was never happy with them.

[powderman]

One of the biggest lawnmower guys is a huge ripoff, charged me $18 last year for a cable. Sears charged $44 for a new belt that lasted a year, bought the next one from an auto supply store, $12, same belt. Went to a gunshop for a couple of mags for my mossy 22, $23 apiece, can order them including shipping for $8 less.  One gunshop went out of business, thankfully, who had bought winchester ball 9mm, put it in ziplocks, 25 per bag, and priced the bag at $25. POWDERMAN. 

[SHOOTALL]

Agri supply if you don't have one near go on line. The blades for my mower cost a third of the cost at the dealer. They have lots of parts.

[Spanky]

The internet has killed alot of small businesses. They can't compete with online pricing.
 
 
 
Spanky

[Conan The Librarian]

Well, yeah, but look how many businesses there are today and doing reasonably well. I think the biggest business killer in recent years has been the overbuilding of businesses. In my area, at one point any given strip mall has about 30% of its shops closed down. We just didn't need that many sandwich shops and coffee shops, drug stores, etc.
 
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a few years ago that said in some locations up to 40% percent of businesses could close with NO impact on consumers in terms of proximity, price, or selection. 40%! That's like having a downtown and a backup downtown.
 
We had a rash of outdoor big box store closings some years ago. Well, it turns out that we really didn't need all those Gander Mountains and Sportsmans Guides and Dicks. There were more of them than there were McDonalds in my area, believe it or not.
 
The internet has also enabled a lot of niche stores to exist and thrive. I know a couple of guitar shops that do most of their business over the internet, but they have a store front too. Those businesses are really nice to have around here, and they could not be in business without the internet.
 
Some friends have a custom map business. They used to have two store fronts and sold all kinds of maps. They got tired of the rents and regulation and employee hassles, so they closed down the store fronts, and now they do their business only on the internet.